D&D 5E The Next D&D Book is JOURNEYS THROUGH THE RADIANT CITADEL

We peered, poked, squinted, flipped, and enhanced the teaser image that WotC put out last week, and it turns out we got it right -- the next book is, indeed, Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel.

Wraparound cover art by Evyn Fong​

Through the mists of the Ethereal Plane shines the Radiant Citadel. Travelers from across the multiverse flock to this mysterious bastion to share their traditions, stories, and calls for heroes. A crossroads of wonders and adventures, the Radiant Citadel is the first step on the path to legend. Where will your journeys take you?

Journeys through the Radiant Citadel is a collection of thirteen short, stand-alone D&D adventures featuring challenges for character levels 1–14. Each adventure has ties to the Radiant Citadel, a magical city with connections to lands rich with excitement and danger, and each can be run by itself or as part of an ongoing campaign. Explore this rich and varied collection of adventures in magical lands.

• Thirteen new stand-alone adventures spanning levels 1 to 14, each with its own set of maps
• Introduces the Radiant Citadel, a new location on the Ethereal Plane that connects adventurers to richly detailed and distinct corners of the D&D multiverse
• Each adventure can be set in any existing D&D campaign setting or on worlds of your own design
• Introduces eleven new D&D monsters
• There’s a story for every adventuring party, from whimsical and light to dark and foreboding and everything in between

Slated for June 21st (update - I just got a press release which says it's June 21st "in North American stores"; I'm not sure what that means for the rest of us!), it's a 224-page adventure anthology featuring a floating city called the Radiant Citadel. The book is written entirely by people of colour, including Ajit George, who was the first person of Indian heritage to write Indian-inspired material for D&D (in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft). Around 50 POC writers were involved in total in various ways.

The Radiant Citadel is on the ethereal plane and is carved from the giant fossil of an unknown monster. A massive gemstone called the Royal Diamond sits at the core, surrounded by a bunch of smaller Concord Jewels, which are gateways to the Citadel's founding civilizations. DMs can link any world to the citadel by placing a Concord Jewel there.

The Citadel, unlike many D&D locations, is more of a sanctuary than a place of danger. The book's alternate cover features a Dawn Incarnate, a creature which is the embodiment of stories and cultures.

D&D 5E - Here's Radiant Citadel's press release

Dropped in my inbox a short while ago, if you want the official announcement. It's the same info as in the news article on the front page. Dungeons & Dragons Invites You to Explore the Radiant Citadel Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel is a new collection of short adventures set in wondrous...

www.enworld.org

The adventures are as follows:

• Salted Legacy
• Written In Blood
• The Fiend of Hollow Mine
• Wages of Vice
• Sins of Our Elders
• Gold for Fools and Princes
• Trail of Destruction
• In the Mists of Manivarsha
• Between Tangled Roots
• Shadow of the Sun
• The Nightsea’s Succor
• Buried Dynasty
• Orchids of the Invisible Mountain

UPDATE -- the press release contains a list of some of the contributors: "Justice Ramin Arman, Dominique Dickey, Ajit A. George, Basheer Ghouse, Alastor Guzman, D. Fox Harrell, T.K. Johnson, Felice Tzehuei Kuan, Surena Marie, Mimi Mondal, Mario Ortegón, Miyuki Jane Pinckard, Pam Punzalan, Erin Roberts, Terry H. Romero, Stephanie Yoon, and many more."

Regular cover by Even Fong

Alternate Cover by Sija Hong​

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I've seen people say that it takes a cynical literalism to turn Waterdeep into a bad place to live, but like...from the top down it's just plain rotten. That's part of what makes it fun to play in, to be from, to be in love with like people are in love with New York or London.

New York and London are models of good city administration compared to so many other places.

Running a city well is hard!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

the Forgotten Realms, the horniest of all official settings

God D&D has so many settings, but yeah none of them even come close to the FR on that. I read a fairly good Greenwood sourcebook on a frontier area of the FR a year or two ago and I remember just like reading the sourcebook normally and there's this big inn on a road through a forest and OH it turns out they hold massive group sex deals there and everyone running the inn is in a big old polycule OK wow damn I probably didn't need know that but now I do! And it's all written in like circumnavigate-y language that Greenwood always uses! Then it just goes on as normal, like, ok, cool.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

You do know that not every country uses Juries even nowadays.

Anyway here is the current version of the code legal. It’s mentioned that the magistrates can alter punishments and Masked Lords can overrule a magistrate.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

God D&D has so many settings, but yeah none of them even come close to the FR on that. I read a fairly good Greenwood sourcebook on a frontier area of the FR a year or two ago and I remember just like reading the sourcebook normally and there's this big inn on a road through a forest and OH it turns out they hold massive group sex deals there and everyone running the inn is in a big old polycule OK wow damn I probably didn't need know that but now I do! And it's all written in like circumnavigate-y language that Greenwood always uses! Then it just goes on as normal, like, ok, cool.

Greenwood’s FR is the most horny place in existence and bits poke through in the published work even with TSR and WotC toning it down. Let’s not forget Durnan impregnated his teenaged bride. (And I don’t mean she was 18/19… yikes) and Mirt shacked up with his adopted daughter.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Greenwood’s FR is the most horny place in existence and bits poke through in the published work even with TSR and WotC toning it down. Let’s not forget Durnan impregnated his teenaged bride. (And I don’t mean she was 18/19… yikes) and Mirt shacked up with his adopted daughter.

Wow I didn't know those little bits of trivia and MAJOR YIKES to both!

 

[Hussar]

Yup, right there - Murdering a Citizen with Justification - exile up to 5 years.

But, I can see that this isn't going to go anywhere. No matter what counter examples are brought up, it's absolutely not going to change opinions. Gift cultures and church examples are brushed off immediately. Yeah, it's sad that we can imagine fantasy worlds, but, a world where people are actually civic minded and take the thirty seconds to learn what would be an appropriate amount to pay beforehand is just a massive bridge too far.

Reminds me of going to weddings here in Japan. In Japan you give cash for a wedding gift. Now, being Canadian, I had no idea how much. So, did I go to the wedding and argue with people? Did I lose my poop about how it's utterly impossible to know what is appropriate? Nope. I asked a couple of people who had been to weddings before and learned the "going" rate.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Chaotic Good's looking better and better to everyone, isn't it?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

You do know that not every country uses Juries even nowadays.

Indeed I know that - I worked as a legal researcher for several years.

That doesn't mean it's remotely a good thing in most cases. The US almost never uses juries because 97% of cases are plea bargains (not hyperbole, that's an accurate figure last I heard, though I think depending on federal or state court it fluctuates between 95% and 99%). That is also not a good thing (in the UK close to 0% are plea bargains, because they only exist for corporate crimes).

I mean, we can't talk politics, but there are countries out there with legal systems that have 98% conviction rates and basically don't allow lawyers. Doesn't mean that's a good thing.

Yup, right there - Murdering a Citizen with Justification - exile up to 5 years.

I was going to point that's probably not what's meant by "justification", because "murder with justification" is akin to a real historical crime and it doesn't usually mean self-defence killings, BUT STOP THE PRESSES because Ed Greenwood himself has answered this question!

And we're somewhat BOTH right.

Does Waterdeep view a difference between Murder with Justification and killing in self-defence?

D&D Sage Advice ·

www.sageadvice.eu

So you will get punished for a self-defence killing, but it's a really minor punishment. Everyone's a winner baby! 10 days of exile, 20-50gp and maybe an ASBO.

Nope. I asked a couple of people who had been to weddings before and learned the "going" rate.

It's almost like you didn't read my post where I talked about exactly that.

There's no "going rate" even hinted at for Radiant Citadel, indeed it hints at the opposite, that it's entirely flexible! That is literally the entire problem.

a world where people are actually civic minded and take the thirty seconds to learn what would be an appropriate amount to pay beforehand is just a massive bridge too far

It's like you've never met an adventurer!

I honestly cannot think of a single D&D character I've ever even seen in a campaign who could honestly be called "civic minded" in a broad sense. I mean, I've only watched a limited amount of Critical Role for example, but absolutely none of them are, and many of them are very much the opposite.

(I am mostly joking but it is rare as hen's teeth in D&D adventurers, certainly in my experience, in every actual play I've read, and every podcast and stream of actual play I've seen.)

 

[Hussar]

And yet WotC repeatedly gets accused of not being creative and only doing the safest thing all the time.

I’d say that this is pretty creative.

Funny you should talk about not being civic minded. In my last session the artificer met a man with one leg, immediately offered to make a prosthetic for him and refused payment.

I’d say without any doubt, my players would have zero problem with this.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Funny you should talk about not being civic minded. In my last session the artificer met a man with one leg, immediately offered to make a prosthetic for him and refused payment.

I wouldn't call that "civic minded" in the least.

That's generous of spirit or kindly. Loads of adventurers are like that. That's extremely different from the sort of mind that seeks to work within a specific community and its rules. In fact it's often found in adventurers who are anything but civic-minded.

Maybe we just mean it differently though. The dictionary definitions (which vary widely and not actually that compatible!) doesn't quite seem to fit how either of us are using it. Certainly in my social class in the UK if you say someone is "civic-minded" it is not necessarily entirely a compliment. It's more a comment on their way of thinking.

I’d say that this is pretty creative.

Sure, but as we've discussed, they weren't given enough space to properly explain this or make it make sense, so we have his messy-as-hell concept, which breaks the brain of some people (including socialists like myself) and seems obvious to others (though what exactly is obvious varies very widely - different people have very different ideas on how they'd implement it).

I’d say without any doubt, my players would have zero problem with this.

This sort of petty sniping lessens your argument, frankly.